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posted by mrpg on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the ok dept.

What, it's not Android?

Jolla Announces Sailfish 3 With Feature Phone Support – MWC 2018

Finnish mobile OS developer Jolla is attending Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, Spain, where the company has officially announced Sailfish 3, the next-generation independent mobile OS built on a five-year software legacy. The company also announced a handful of new devices that have joined the Sailfish ecosystem and it revealed its plans for a new branch of its mobile operating system which was designed specifically for 4G-enabled feature phones as it sets out to allow select Android app access on low-spec hardware for consumers who don't need or want a full-fledged smartphone.

One of the biggest changes introduced with the latest Sailfish 3 OS lies in the way the software can be distributed through regional licensing, providing full support for regional infrastructure which should lead to steady upgrade releases and more. As for the mobile operating system itself, Sailfish 3 should provide 30-percent faster performance, improved multitasking with the ability to quickly switch between applications, as well as a redesigned top menu containing actions and settings. The mobile operating system employs a new visual style comprising new ambiances, light themes, and animations, while also offering new security solutions including revised architecture, fingerprint support, encryption, remote locking and wiping capabilities, as well as enablers for blockchain-based services.

Sailfish OS.

Press release. Also at TechCrunch, Engadget, and NDTV.

Related: Jolla Tablet Ship Date Slips
Sailfish OS Maker Jolla: Funding Delay Results in "Temporary Layoffs"
Android is a Dead End
Jolla to Sell OS Image for Sony Phone


Original Submission

Related Stories

Jolla Tablet Ship Date Slips 18 comments

According to the Jolla Blog the ship date for the much anticipated Jolla Tablet has slipped: From June-ish to July-ish. (The original ship date was expected to be May).

Jolla had one of the most successful Crowdfunded projects run by IndieGOGO. It ended up being over funded by 480%, exhibiting strong support for another tablet that isn't IOS, isn't Android, and isn't Windows.

Pre-production versions of the Jolla Tablet were judged Best Tablet of Mobile World Congress 15. (autoplay video on the page).

In fact the MWC event played a part in slowing down the release, as Jolla burned the midnight oil getting demonstrators ready for the show. In spite of a not yet completed Sailfish 2.0 operating system and not yet finalized hardware, Jolla impressed all reviewers.

Along the way, Jolla made significant upgrades to to the tablet's specs, including an upgraded Sailfish 2.0. Also added were larger memory, and a just announced new screen.

Sailfish OS can run android apps. The latest release version is Sailfish Äijänpäivänjärvi. (No, I can't pronounce it either). Its currently running on the Jolla phone, available mostly in Europe.

Since Sailfish is based on Ubuntu and Mer, it is Linux, and as such you can install Linux applications. Because of this, it may provide some competition to the big players in the mobile field.

Jolla (pronounced "yala", means small boat in Finish) is based in Finland (Suomi). The company is composed of ex-Nokia veterans. The Tablet's Main Website is rather script heavy.

Disclaimer: While this may read like a slashvertisment, I have no connection to Jolla, other than as a future customer. I participated in the Crowd-funding, (paid the money) but I haven't seen either the Tablet or the Phone yet. I'm eager to get my hands on it. Delays aren't fun, but I'd rather have it right than have it right away.

Sailfish OS Maker Jolla: Funding Delay Results in "Temporary Layoffs" 14 comments

The woes continue for Jolla, the Finnish producer of mobile devices and the Sailfish mobile operating system.

Tech.eu reports

The company just announced (PDF) that its latest financing round--which was scheduled to conclude at the end of this month--has been postponed indefinitely.

Jolla says it needs to "adjust its operations accordingly", which means it will temporarily lay off a big part of its staff, starting in December. The Helsinki-based company has also filed for a debt restructuring program in Finland to stay afloat.

[...] Reportedly, half of Jolla's 100 employees will be let go.

[...] Earlier this year, the company split in two, effectively separating (PDF) its software and licensing business from its mobile devices business.

Jolla says its Sailfish OS has "reached commercial maturity" and is ready to be licensed to commercial partners, primarily other device manufacturers.

[...] Antti Saarnio, chairman and co-founder of Jolla, [...] remains convinced that Sailfish OS is "worth fighting for" and believes Jolla can still become a profitable venture, hence the corporate restructuring program.


Original Submission

Android is a Dead End 100 comments

I've been an Android user since Froyo, over several devices. I'm beginning to think that there must be a better way.

First, although I liked Android, especially the part that was Open Source, I'll suggest that the whole Android ecosystem represents a dead end.

At a minimum, it seems like madness to rely on two or more layers of outside partners to deliver software patches and updates. It's just not reasonable or safe for end users to wait for months or years until device makers and wireless carriers deliver patches from Google - if they ever do.

That there's no way a user can update their system without their cooperation is just not acceptable today.

Second, even if an update or patch does arrive, it brings with it the likelihood that some feature or application that you have been using will be hobbled, eliminated, or just plain be made unusable by Google. Services provided by Google are subject to changes that, depending on your circumstances, make them significantly less usable. (Gmail being a prime example) Standalone apps like Reader or MyTracks may just stop working one day if Google loses interest.

Finally, there's the Play store, and the millions of apps available to users. I think that most people would agree that trying to find a usable app for a specific purpose is an exercise in frustration.

[Continues...]

Jolla to Sell OS Image for Sony Phone 23 comments

Jolla, of "where's my tablet" fame, has announced a plan the sell their SailfishOS for Sony Xperia X phones as an aftermartket upgrade. From the announcement:

Here are the hard facts you need to know:

Sales start date: September 27, 2017. Product – what you will get:

  • Sailfish OS image to flash to your Xperia device – our target is to have the downloadable image ready by October 11
  • Android support, predictive text input, and MS exchange support as downloads from Jolla Store to your device
  • SW updates for one year, after which a continuation program will follow
  • Clear instructions and support for downloads & installation
  • Jolla Customer Care service

Availability: EU, Norway, Switzerland; US & CA to be confirmed. Price: 49,90€ (including VAT)

Seems like quite the bizarre move for a company that has lost so much consumer faith.

Seen on Phoronix


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:07AM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:07AM (#644433)

    I really wanted to participate in the "Qt on mobile" revolution, but the Jolla tablet never materialized and their phones are far from competitive in the US market. Maybe some day.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by tekk on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:47AM (1 child)

      by tekk (5704) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:47AM (#644476)

      To be fair, the Jolla tablet "materialized."

      As I understand it they ran out of money during the production run, so they were like "Oh shit" and went full damage control. They shipped the tablets that they could (had already manufactured) and then slowly refunded people who didn't receive tablets as their cashflow allowed.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 27 2018, @12:46PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @12:46PM (#644592)

        Yeah, their cashflow has allowed me half a refund so far...

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 2) by Apparition on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:57AM

    by Apparition (6835) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:57AM (#644451) Journal

    Good timing for a feature phone OS. I hope it makes it to the U.S. Whenever my current smartphone dies, it looks like I'm going to get out of the smartphone market as the sole manufacturer of a sane-sized (smaller than five inches) smartphone just dumped the 3.5mm headphone jack and bumped the size up to 5 inches [androidpolice.com]. The three things I use my smartphone for are to text messages, play music, and to use the Lyft app. If I can no longer play music on it (no 3.5mm headphone jack), I may as well use a "dumb" phone.

    That's assuming I will be able to find a decent feature phone then, as the one (exactly one) that my carrier offers at the moment is a LG piece of junk.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:40AM (11 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:40AM (#644471) Journal

    Those bastards still owe me a tablet from their kickstater. They took all the money, spent it on developing the OS (into their own pocket), ordered some horrible tablets, and stiffed the manufacture of those as well. The users got nothing. They promised refunds, which never happened.

    Wouldn't trust these guys with a stick of chewing gum.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by tekk on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:56AM (3 children)

      by tekk (5704) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:56AM (#644482)

      Did the refunds never happen? My understanding was that they got sent out slowly but they were *eventually* sent out. Maybe you just got lost somewhere? At least complaints about refunds have quieted down on the Sailfish subreddits for a while, maybe they just gave up hope.

      • (Score: 5, Informative) by MadTinfoilHatter on Tuesday February 27 2018, @10:00AM (1 child)

        by MadTinfoilHatter (4635) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @10:00AM (#644550)

        The refunds are still ongoing. [jolla.com] They didn't have enough money to return all the money to everyone at once, so they repaid half of it. Last year they refunded the latter half to 83 randomly chosen individuals. (I, myself have gotten the first repayment but wasn't one of the 83 lucky ones.)

        I don't think the situation is as bad as the GP is making it out to be, even though I'm disappointed to not be the owner of a Jolla tablet. What happened was effectively that

        1) software development got costlier than expected

        2) some other deals they were counting on fell through

        This was enough to mess everything up for them, because a small company doesn't have huge margins. I agree that they did a very poor PR job at communicating the situation, though, which is why some people were left with the impression that they just blew the money on software development instead of actually delivering the tablets. (In reality the SW and HW development went hand-in-hand. The old SW wouldn't have worked as-is on the new hardware.)

        • (Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday February 27 2018, @02:10PM

          by Bot (3902) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @02:10PM (#644612) Journal

          > 1) software development got costlier than expected

          that's strange, they had chosen to rely on systemd, what can possibly go wrong...

          --
          Account abandoned.
      • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday February 27 2018, @12:54PM

        by opinionated_science (4031) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @12:54PM (#644594)

        I got my refund - 03/16/2016. Jumped through some hoops if I recall...

    • (Score: 5, Informative) by melikamp on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:59AM (6 children)

      by melikamp (1886) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @04:59AM (#644488) Journal

      Fascinating, if true.

      On a related note, let's talk about writing summaries. This summary above enumerates some very minor features, but fails to mention really major ones. This OS forces every user to run proprietary code from multiple parties in ring zero: that it, with highest privileges afforded by the mobile device. Its major feature is to spy on its users on behalf of the OS manufacturer, as well as providing interfaces for Google (via a proprietary Android emulator), telecoms (via SIM support), and some chipset manufacturers (via network and power drivers) to do the same. These are not unfortunate side-effects, these are features, and the OS was designed from the ground up, licensing and all, to make sure these features are implemented, supported, and concealed from the user as much as possible.

      May be consumers would start giving a damn if we started mentioning these simple facts in every technical review of OS software. And conversely, every summary of features which omits these simple facts is not merely offending the sensibilities of the free software movement. It is actually lying by omission and betraying the technical incompetence of the reviewer at best, and a malicious intent at worst.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:59PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 27 2018, @03:59PM (#644651)

        Is the spying any worse than Android? When my Gemini PDA comes, I was planning on replacing Android with sailfish, while having away on Linux to get proper telephony set up. Lineage may be the way to go.

        • (Score: 2) by melikamp on Tuesday February 27 2018, @07:12PM

          by melikamp (1886) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @07:12PM (#644735) Journal
          It may be better today, but it is guaranteed to become worse if this thing gets traction. All the Android-style spying, starting with Google, is possible via the Android runtime blob, plus Joomla takes its own slice of that cake. But chances are, it's already worse. This Sailfish OS is newer than Android, so not only we can assume it was designed with spying in mind (that is true for every modern blob), we can also be sure that they looked very carefully at how Android and IOS handle spying, and improved on that.
      • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:36PM (3 children)

        by acid andy (1683) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:36PM (#644695) Homepage Journal

        Its major feature is to spy on its users on behalf of the OS manufacturer

        Ah crap! Not Sailfish too :( This is the first I'd heard of this. I've just done some searching and can't find anything definitive to back it up. Have you got any links about this please?

        --
        If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
        • (Score: 2) by melikamp on Tuesday February 27 2018, @07:07PM (2 children)

          by melikamp (1886) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @07:07PM (#644730) Journal

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS

          Source model Open source with added closed-source components and/or extensions of third parties which can be of other licences as well.

          https://sailfishos.org/wiki/SailfishOS_Source

          The base layer source code is usually[sic] proprietary, and thus is generally not available for public access.

          That's Joomla's spyware/backdoor stack. Android Runtime they supply is a blob, so Google gets an in. Other parties I mentioned get access in a well-documented manner. If you just look at the Replicant project, the open issues they have, you realize that it's not practical to talk to wireless towers without a telecom blob, and it's not possible to make certain drivers work in that form factor. These are not technical issues, to be sure, these are all the ongoing abuses by the telecom cartel, which is closely aligned with the hardware cartel and the copyright mafia.

          • (Score: 2) by melikamp on Tuesday February 27 2018, @07:14PM

            by melikamp (1886) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @07:14PM (#644737) Journal
            s/Joomla/Jolla/
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28 2018, @01:21AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 28 2018, @01:21AM (#644907)

            yeah, they wanted to talk about FOSS,meego, etc but they're just slaveware peddling douchbags. i'd like to use their macbook's to knock their horn rimmed glasses off of their whore faces.

  • (Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:01AM

    by Appalbarry (66) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:01AM (#644489) Journal

    In case you're interested :

    https://jolla.com [jolla.com]

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:34PM

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday February 27 2018, @05:34PM (#644692) Journal

    I thought they died once already. Apparently, I was mistaken. They're definitely on my see it to believe it list. They may not be sketchy, but they definitely had issues getting things together.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
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